Sikhs across Kolkata today
celebrated the 546th birthday of Guru Nanak Dev ji, the first Sikh guru, with
reverence. Several thousands of Sikh devotees gathered at the Saheed Minar
ground, near Esplanade today and started prayer. .
Ragi jathas (singer of
sacred hymns) and pracharaks (scholars
who interpret the holy Scriptures) came from across the country asked the
devotees to follow the principles of
Guru Nanak Dev ji who always taught to live in peace and harmony.
The celebrations of the
Guru's birth anniversary started on Sunday with nagar kirtan (procession). It
was a three days event that started since Tuesday. The festivities would end on
Thursday late night around 1.20 a.m, which is the actual time of birth of Guru
Nanak who was born in Talwandi, now in Pakistan in 1469. Devotees from other
community also took delicious prasad and a langar (community kitchen) was also
set up where a large number devotees engaged them cooking prasad. Women and
gents devotees were serving the prasad like chapatti, dal makhani, halua rice,
vegitables.
Panchayat and rural development,
Mr Subroto Mukherjee attended the birthday celebrations, The president of Shree
Guru Singh Sabha, Kolkata, Bhupinder Singh Grewal said, around 1 lakh devotees
took part in the annual event that is being celebrated jointly by all the
gurudawaras of the city at one place.
The general secretary of
the committee, Mr Sukhdev Singh Warna, said the state government helped them
with deploying the cops for the
peaceful conduct of the event.
